No relief in sight for summer heat trend

For the 30th consecutive year, the Earth’s summer temperature was above average (left), according to data released Tuesday by the National Climatic Data Center. Global temperatures were the ninth-warmest since records began in 1880. (Climatologists define summer as the months of June, July and August.)

Measuring just the globe’s land areas, it was the seventh-warmest summer on record.


The summer was unusually warm in most of the USA, Mexico, Europe, Australia, the British Isles, Asia and South America, while cooler-than-average conditions were recorded across the western and southern coast of Alaska, parts of northern Scandinavia and northwestern Russia.

Additionally, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported Tuesday that Arctic sea ice melted to its second-lowest level on record, just slightly more than the 2007 record-low. Given trends of the past 30 years, likely triggered by man-made global warming, scientists predict that within five to 10 years, the Arctic could be entirely ice-free in the summer.